UC Regents

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Unseemly Picture? A Proposal to Tax State Public Pensions – But Not UCRP – Is Among Three Initiatives Submitted by a Santa Barbara Group

Byuclafaculty

A group called the California Center for Public Policy submitted three initiatives to the Attorney General Tuesday. One would ban collective bargaining in the public sector in California. Two others deal with public pensions. Notably, the two pension initiatives omit the UC pension and cover only CalPERS and CalSTRS. One initiative would tax pension benefits above $100,000 with progressive surcharges. The other raises the basic retirement age to 65. Scroll down to the bottom of this entry to read the three initiatives. (Reminder: Anyone can submit initiatives for $200. It takes $1-$2 million to pay signature-gathering firms to get things…

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Squeeze in the Middle

Byuclafaculty

The graphic above appears in today’s Sacramento Bee along with an article indicating a tuition squeeze on the middle class at UC and CSU. The Regents’ July meeting begins today. They are expected to approve an additional tuition increase in response to the recently-passed state budget. The article related to the graphic is at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/12/3763136/middle-class-feels-tuition-squeeze.html To aid the Regents, here is a little helper:

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Action Needed Before We Get Boxed In on Pensions in 2012

Byuclafaculty

One impact of the recently-enacted state budget is that – because it was done without Republican support – there will be no special election this calendar year and, therefore, no propositions dealing with public pensions. In 2012, however, there could be pension-related items on the ballot. California senate leader Darrell Steinberg had this to say about what the legislative Democrats might put on the ballot: Steinberg pointed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposals to eliminate purchase of air time, prohibit so-called pension holidays and retroactive pension increases and ban payment of pension benefits to employees who are convicted of a felony…

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Regents to Be Asked to Leave Pay Increases to the President

Byuclafaculty

There will be other items on the agenda of the upcoming Regents meeting (July 12-14) apart from the budget-related tuition increase discussed in early blog posts. For example, the Regents are asked to delegate certain authority over pay increases to the UC president: Regents Policy 7203, adopted in November 2005 and subsequently amended in July 2010, established the goal of obtaining, prioritizing, and directing funds, to the extent such funds were available, to increase salaries to achieve market comparability for all groups of employees over a ten year period. Upon adoption, the policy included language requiring annual approval by the…

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Longevity is a Mixed Blessing (for the Pension)

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, the actuarial assumptions underlying the UC pension plan are re-examined by an outside consultant. For the July Regents meeting, the agenda includes officially changing various assumptions in the light of experience, the net of which raise the normal cost of the plan (by 1%) and the unfunded liability (by 3.7%). The main factor raising costs is a finding that participants are living longer. Full report at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul11/f4.pdf

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UCLA Says No Thanks to Running MLK Hospital Despite Regents Involvement

Byuclafaculty

Although the Regents took on the revival of the Martin Luther King Hospital that was shut down by LA County after numerous problems, UCLA has declined to operate the revamped facility when it reopens. From a report to the Regents July session: Martin Luther King Hospital Update: … A contract for design/build was executed with Hensel Phelps on April 14, 2011. The construction is on schedule with the 120-bed hospital to be “substantially completed” by March 15, 2013, with occupancy by September 15, 2013. Operation of the facility: A “request for solutions” was issued to 12 pre-qualified organizations. The Board…

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In-State Applicants Knock on UC Admissions Door But Out-of-State Proportion Rising

Byuclafaculty

At their upcoming July meeting, the Regents will receive projected undergrad admissions and enrollment data. California residents – while still the heavy majority of projected incoming students – are declining as a percent of total new enrollment. Applications were up but in-state admits, both as freshmen and as community college transfers, were flat. The report is available at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul11/e1.pdf As the budget squeeze continues, UC increasingly will likely turn away in-state residents knocking on the admissions door:

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Regents to Approve UCLA Apartment Project at July Meeting

Byuclafaculty

The next Regents meeting is scheduled for July 12-14. Slated for approval are replacement and enlargement of two UCLA apartment houses in Westwood: 625/641 Landfair Avenue and 558/564 Glenrock Avenue in a $57.5 million project. Although on the July agenda, the project description indicates that construction will begin in July. Photos of those addresses from Google streetview can be seen here. The agenda item can be seen at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul11/gb2.pdf

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UC Tuition Up Another Rung

Byuclafaculty

From today’s Sacramento Bee: “…UC officials said Friday they will recommend that the Board of Regents consider raising undergraduate tuition by 9.6 percent when it meets in mid-July. That increase would come on top of a previously approved 8 percent tuition hike set to go into effect this fall. If approved, tuition for in-state undergraduates would rise by more than $1,000 to about $12,200, not including room, board or campus fees…” Full story at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/01/3742982/uc-eyes-another-tuition-increase.html

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Deeply Disappointed

Byuclafaculty

When the previous (and now-vetoed) state budget was enacted, President Yudof and Regents Chair Gould put out a strong press release condemning the action. Now that we a new budget with the same cut and a trigger that could add still more cuts, the press release reaction seems rather tepid, given that this is the second time around: UC statement on state budget plan 2011-06-28 The following statement about the budget plan announced by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic leaders of the state Legislature was released today (June 28) by the University of California Office of the President: The…